Fishing nets, airbags, carpets. These are the materials that polyamide producers need to collect and treat to make recycled post-consumer nylon. It is a much tougher task than spinning beverage bottles back into polyester. For this reason, recycled nylon comes in limited supply, despite technologies that are already in operation. Aquafil’s ‘regeneration’ process comes to mind but all polyamide producers meticulously collect any production waste they have to meet growing demand for recycled content. Even when considering the possibility of recycling used clothing, the sector runs up against a tricky situation: nylon is often blended with elastane, which needs to be separated out.

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